Village community garage sale date set for April
With warmer weather still months away, the first date for community garage and yard sales is on the books. The St. Joseph Community Garage Sale will take place on April 8 - 10.
Billy Bob's settles case with the county
After paying $50 reinstatement fee for their health permit and submitting to an inspection, starting Friday the restaurant under the water tower will be open for carryout service only. The establishment posted on Facebook their new hours for service will be Sunday thru Wednesday from 11a to 7p and Thursday thru Saturday from 11a-8p.
The settlement also included a provision that Billy Bob's submit a written plan detailing its plans to operate under current county ordinance and state COVID-19 mitigation restrictions.
Health authorities suspended the permit on December 11 for continuing indoor service for remaining open in defiance of the state mandated mitigation plan which forbid indoor dining. Billy Bob's continued to operate without a valid health permit before receiving court summons.
For more information on carryout service call (217) 582-2277.
St. Joseph youth baseball registration opens next week
Player registration for the St. Joseph Youth Baseball Little League opens on Saturday, January 23. Eligible players have until February 6 to sign up. A birthday chart to help determine which level a child will play can be found here.
Tolono studio photographer offers mini sessions
Give that special someone in your life a photo on Valentine's Day. Photographer Madeline Wilson is offering Valentine's Day mini sessions with families, kids, couples and/or pets in her studio located at 104 Main Street in Tolono. Sessions will begin on January 31 and run through February 14.
For more information visit Wilson's Facebook business page or call (217) 621-4159.
Tier 2 on the horizon
"We are watching closely in this incubation period post-Christmas and New Year’s. I am cautiously optimistic as there are some early signs that some regions have made real progress," Pritzker announced during an afternoon press briefing. The news comes after he extended the emergency COVID restriction Monday, requiring people to wear a mask for another 150 days.
In order for a region to move back to Tier 2 mitigations, a region must experience less than 12 percent test positivity rate for three consecutive days, have more than 20 percent available intensive care unit (ICU) hospital bed availability and have declining COVID hospitalizations in 7 of the last 10 days. The Governor's team is waiting to see if there is a surge or spike of COVID-19 cases seeded from New Year's gatherings.
Locally there have seventeen new case identified in the past 48 hours. The Sentinel area saw the lowest number of active cases in over 51 days on Tuesday with 59. The number of infections have climbed to 71 likely from New Year's Eve revelry.
As of Wednesday night, 3,921 patients in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. According state records, 783 of those patients were in the ICU and 450 patients on ventilators.
The Sentinel will help promote your business
If you own and operate a business located in Tolono, Sidney, Philo, Ogden, St. Joseph or Royal, fill out the form below to list your business or the services you offer in The Sentinel Business Directory. To list your business' contact information complete the online form here...
Send your business, social or community organization's press release or event information to The Sentinel at editor@oursentinel.com.
When I was sixteen years old, I was invited to speak at a little country church in rural Denver Kentucky, not far from Paintsville.
The church had all but closed its doors but one man, Harold Rice, and his family wanted to see the church stay open and do well.
A church with few to almost no people typically does not attract too many interested ministers. I had spoken in my home church a few times and was a guest speaker in a few others. Mr. Rice asked if I would consider speaking at the church on the second and fourth Sunday afternoons at 2:00. I agreed, and brought a message to maybe seven or eight people my first Sunday. The crowd consisted of Harold and his wife June Rice and their family. The church was an old building with a pump organ and a sign behind the pulpit that said, "Preach the Word."
I stayed with the little congregation called Liberty Baptist Church throughout high school. By the time I was seventeen Mr. Rice was talking to me about being the official pastor and about ordination. In time I would become the pastor and would be ordained. I was too young, too inexperienced and unskilled for such a responsibility but youth is adventurous and will try what those of us who know better would never consider.
The church grew and we started having 20 to 30 people and often more. People literally received Christ, joined the church and were baptized. This was all amazing.
Even more amazing was Mr. Rice offered me a grand salary of $60 a month to help buy my gasoline. The trip one way from home was over 30 miles so this was appreciated.
He also presented me with paperwork for a perk. The church was going to put 10 percent or $6 of my salary into the church denominational retirement plan, then known as The Annuity Board. It's called Guidestone today. He had me to complete a form solidifying my agreement to this monthly contribution. I was about seventeen at this stage and had zero interest or thoughts about retirement. Six dollars a month kind of seemed like a joke.
I was with Liberty church a couple of years or more and about ten to twelve of those months Mr. Rice made that $6 contribution to my retirement faithfully. Although, I never thought another day about it from the moment I signed those papers.
Seven or eight years ago I did wonder if that account even existed. I called up The Guidestone retirement people and with my Social Security number they told me in a few seconds that the account did indeed exist and my balance was $31,000.
Shocked would not describe how I felt. I almost had to pick myself off the floor. If Mr. Rice had made as many as 12 contributions the total invested would have been $72. Now, years later I was looking at over $31,000. Since that day of first inquiring that little $6 account now has over $46,000 and still growing.
The point of all this is save some money when you can.
Start as young as possible but even if you are old put something away every month. If you can save hundreds every month that is wonderful, please do. However, don't ever underestimate the growth potential of saving a little bit of money every month, even if it's just $6. And yes, every time I look at that account, I remember Mr. Rice and the good people of Liberty Baptist Church who not only encouraged me then but are still encouraging me today with just $6.
In the United States, more than half of all adults have in our country suffer from one or more chronic diseases that would be preventable proper eating habits and regular exercise. Every five years since 1980, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published the 
Village President Jason Arrasmith plans to discuss the purchase of an enclosed bulletin board for the new community building as well as the possibility of building infrastructure to support electrical power for Christmas lights in the future. He will also lead a discussion on the new lights at Witt Park.
Trustees will also discuss future compensation for their work on the village board.
